Welcome to another week of The Runback. Have you been enjoying The Duckpin? Do you have comments or suggestions? Do you want to write for us? Let me know at theduckpin@gmail.com. And please be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Thanks in advance.
News and Politics
The Giant of the Senate: There will never be another Mike Miller.
Same COVID, Different Rules for Restaurants: Travel around Maryland and adjacent jurisdictions, and you will encounter vastly different COVID restrictions. It is the same disease, subject to the same "science" and the same CDC recommendations.
Trump is Right on Stimulus: The Blind Squirrel finds a nut.
Sports
A Traditionalist Fix for the College Football Playoff: Make January 1st Great Again!
Auburn Makes Their Choice: Can a West Coast/Outsider Hire Work in the SEC?
Did you see this week’s NFL Preview? Take a look at how the picks went down and be sure to tune in Friday to this week’s picks.
Culture
Worst Christmas Movies: You watched the best...now watch the worst.
The Worst/Best Christmas Songs: You’ve all had the same thoughts yourself, really.
The Monday Thought
2020 is mercifully ending this week. And so far it is ending with the same political insanity that we have experienced throughout the year.
The shocking and senseless Christmas Day terrorist attack on Nashville has been used by conspiracy theorists to advance whatever their preferred conspiracy of the moment is. Depending on which end of the internet you’re listening to it’s either Dominion or 5G that was the target. None of which is corroborated by anything resembling evidence.
Meanwhile down in Florida, President Trump took time off of from plotting the overthrow of the results of a fair and free election to sign the COVID relief bill in a nearly comical and hysterical way:
I hope somebody told the President that this “red-lined” version is of no consequence whatsoever. Congress is not required to take any action on any requests for rescission under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Especially for a President who will be out-of-office in 23 days.
What’s wild about the Trump bill signing is the theatrics that surrounded it. Apparently, Trump was going to sign the bill on Christmas Eve at 7 PM but changed his mind at the last minute. And then he changed his mind again today and signed the bill after a few days of criticism. During that timeframe, unemployment benefits for many families lapsed. What was the point? Who knows.
Sounds like the 4-D Chess that Trump supporters like to tell us all about. Telling people all the reasons that you’re going to veto a bill and then signing it anyway, because reasons. It’s just another display of the weakness that Trump has displayed throughout his administration.
This kind of insanity is pretty indicative of what the entirety of 2020 has been like. When we haven’t been dealing with COVID, when we haven’t been dealing with natural disasters, when we haven’t been dealing with heinous acts, we’ve been dealing with goofy political theater.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like 2021 is going to get off to any better of a start. Within the first three weeks of the year, we are going to have to deal with:
The Georgia Senate runoff elections on January 5th;
The unnecessary and unconscionable objection to the Presidential election results by conspiracy-fueled members of Congress;
The final days of the Trump Presidency.
And then who knows what will follow from there. Maybe we’ll finally get to Infrastructure Week.
The mental strain of paying attention to politics, even for somebody like me who is an aficionado, a writer, a participant in it, has been nearly too much to bear.
Let’s hope, for the sake of all of us, that 2021 brings a better year. For ourselves, for our families, and for our country.